


Seeking Arcana

by Mhalachai



Series: Angels and Drums [2]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Torchwood
Genre: Crossover, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-13
Updated: 2012-02-13
Packaged: 2017-10-31 02:18:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/338795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mhalachai/pseuds/Mhalachai
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dawn is looking for Buffy in all the wrong places...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seeking Arcana

**Author's Note:**

> _Setting_ Post BtVS, after Dr. Who's _Last of the Time Lords_. Uses a minor non-spoilery character from Torchwood's _Dead Man Walking_.
> 
> First published in March, 2008.

Dawn sat across the table from the little girl, wondering if she was signing a deal with the devil. "Why are you here?" the girl asked, looking idly at her tarot cards.

Dawn inhaled, the cloying incense filling her lungs until she couldn't breathe. "I've lost my sister."

The girl turned over a card. Two of swords. "You've come a long way from Venice."

A shiver ran down Dawn's spine. How had the girl known where Buffy had vanished? Was she really as good as everyone said? "A friend told me you could help," Dawn said.

The girl gathered the cards back to her. She turned over the top card and laid it before Dawn. The hermit. "Your sister ran away."

"She wouldn't do that!" Dawn exclaimed, but the words tasted like a lie. 

"She went mad." The little girl plucked another card from the pile and laid it on the table. This time, it was the nine of swords. "And she sought out..." Another card, the Magician. A disconcerting smile spread across the little girl's innocent features. "A doctor to take away her pain."

Dawn gripped the edge of the table. "Do you know where she is?"

Judgment was laid upon the table. "She dances across the stars."

"She-- what?" Dawn leaned in closer. "Where is she?"

Her raised voice brought the tea shop's bouncer over to the table. 

The little girl went back to her cards. "You think you have lost her, but you have not." The last card turned over. Ten of swords. "She ran away from the memory of your death."

"But I'm not dead!"

The girl sat back against the cushions of her chair. "We're all dead. You just don't know it yet."

The bouncer took Dawn's elbow and hauled her to her feet. 

"Speak with the Captain," the little girl called as Dawn was dragged from the club. "Tell him that I've sent him a key for his locked memories."

The words struck all breath from Dawn’s lungs. In her stunned state, the bouncer easily tossed her out onto the sidewalk and closed the door.

Staring up at the dark Cardiff night sky, Dawn let the rain spatter down on her upturned face. She'd come to this stupid Hellmouth city looking for Buffy and she was even further away from answers than before.

Now, at least, she had something. She would track down this Captain, then she'd find Buffy and everything would be better. Never mind that Buffy had been gone for months, that Dawn was falling apart at the seams from not _knowing_. 

With a sigh, she reached for her cell phone. While she was at it, Dawn was really going to have to have another talk with Giles about their use of creepy little girls as informants.


End file.
